(Photographed by Evolutionnumber9
and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)There's no doubt that Tyrannosaurus rex is, by far, the most famous of the Stock Dinosaurs, seen as both the most majestic and the most terrifying of them all. Its prominence in both science and culture cannot be understated — so much so that it's the only Stock Dinosaur we have given its own page. But what are the facts beneath the fiction?
Discovery and Naming
The first T. rex fossil found was a single tooth recorded in 1874 by Arthur Lakes but otherwise unnamed. In the 1890s, new fossils were uncovered at the end of the Bone Wars that Edward Drinker Cope named "Manospondylus gigas" ("giant porous vertebrae"). However, these were variably considered to be from an ornithomimid or ceratopsid, and their true nature would only be recognized many decades later. T. rex would be officially described by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1905, based on a partial skeleton found by Barnum Brown in Hell Creek, Montana.
Whereas most dinosaurs are known outside paleontological circles only by their genus, T. rex is popularly known by its full binomium. Tyrannosaurus, the genus name, comes from the Greek tyrannos, meaning "tyrant", and sauros, meaning "lizard". Rex, the specific name, meanwhile, is Latin for "king", therefore the whole name translates to "tyrant lizard king". As per the rules of binomial nomenclature, the genus name should be spelled with a capital "T", whereas the species name should be spelled with a lowercase "r". And the correct abbreviation of the name is T. rex, not T-rex and especially not T-Rex.
In the same paper describing T. rex, Osborn described the fossils of another large carnivore, found in Wyoming, as "Dynamosaurus imperiosus" ("ruling power lizard"), but later realized that the two belonged to the same species. The rules of scientific naming say the first name is gets priority, but since T. rex and "Dynamosaurus" were named in the same paper, they are considered simultaneous for nomenclatural purposes. Fortunately for us, Osborn chose to keep Tyrannosaurus. As for "Manospondylus", it ended up causing a minor panic in the 90s when scientists confirmed it to be a T. rex specimen, leading to the possibility of having to rename T. rex for seniority reasons. Fortunately, T. rex's name was saved under a minor technicality that prevented scientific names coined before 1899 from being used if the junior synonym had been in at least 50 papers in the past few decades. Other invalid synonyms of Tyrannosaurus include "Stygivenator molnari" ("Ralph Molnar's Stygian hunter", for a paleontologist) and "Dinotyrannus megagracilis" ("big, gracile terrible tyrant"), both of which likely represent juvenile Tyrannosaurus.
One especially notorious name associated with Tyrannosaurus is Nanotyrannus lancensis ("dwarf tyrant of the Lance Formation", after where it was found). Identified in 1988 by Bob Bakker, Michael Williams and Phil Currie from a juvenile specimen, this dinosaur was long one of the biggest hot-button topics of paleontology, with scientists and dino-fans alike raging over whether the fossils represented a 5-meter-long pygmy tyrannosaur or a teenage T. rex. With its gracile body and slender skull, identification as the latter implied young T. rex looked vastly different from the adults and thus occupied a different niche. But in 2025, the idea was entirely thrown out of the window when Lindsay Zanno and James Napoli, examining an exceptionally well-preserved small tyrannosaur, discovered the specimen represented the long-awaited adult Nanotyrannus. Aside from the slenderness and size difference, Nanotyrannus had proportionally larger arms than T. rex as well as more teeth and differently-structured nasal cavities and braincase. Furthermore, it turned out Nanotyrannus was not as closely related to T. rex at all and was instead a more basal form of tyrannosaur (see "Classification"). These revelations rocked the paleontological community, converting many longtime Nanotyrannus skeptics and indicating a need to reexamine several previous assumptions about T. rex. However, since confirmed juvenile fossils are known from related tyrannosaur species Tarbosaurus and Albertosaurus, it is still likely that T. rex juveniles were more gracile than their seniors and acquired their famous bulk with age.
In 2022, Gregory S. Paul proposed that T. rex actually consisted of three species, a massive ancestral form called "T. imperator" ("tyrant lizard emperor"), and its two descendant species, the robust T. rex and the gracile "T. regina" ("tyrant lizard queen"). However, this theory is deemed extremely unlikely by other paleontologists, as Paul's paper was criticized for its flawed reasonings. More likely, the differences the paper used to argue for its idea represent individual variations. But in 2024, a second species of Tyrannosaurus was officially named by Sebastian Dalman from a partial skeleton found in New Mexico, dubbed T. mcraeensis ("tyrant lizard of the McRae Formation", after where it was discovered). This species was initially thought to have lived 3 to 5 million years earlier than T. rex and is potentially considered to have been ancestral to it. However, other studies disagree with its age and its degree of physical difference from T. rex, making it a possible junior synonym as well (though see the Time Period, Range, and Environment section).
An alleged third species, known only from fragmentary remains of the Ojo Alamo Formation, and unofficially nicknamed "Alamotyrannus" or "Tyrannosaurus vannus" in 2013, seems to have lived in Texas after T. mcraeensis but before T. rex. However, the extremely fragmentary and possibly chimeric nature of the "Alamotyrannus" fossils make confidently diagnosing it as a valid and separate taxon very problematic, and more recent argon dating of the Ojo Alamo Formation places it at 66.5 MYA at its oldest, well within the expected temporal range of T. rex. Finally, a Tyrannosaurus-like skull fragment is known from Montana's Judith River Formation about 75 mya, further suggesting that the Tyrannosaurus genus was a lot more widespread and long-lived than is conventionally believed. However, the exact age of this fragment is uncertain; there's a reasonable chance it's a Hell Creek-aged fossil that got "re-worked" into older strata.
The most complete T. rex skeletons were found in 1990 and 1992, and were dubbed as "Sue" (pictured above) and "Stan". These two fossils helped us get a much more accurate image of what the species was like.
Classification
While Barnum Brown and others thought tyrannosaurids were related to ornithomimids since they share features like long legs and an atrophied wrist, it was generally believed for most of the 20th century that Tyrannosaurus was, as Osborn thought, closely related to other giant, carnivorous theropods, such as Allosaurus and Megalosaurus, as part of the group Carnosauria. However, studies in the 90s revealed T. rex to in a fact be a part of the group Coelurosauria, which includes many small, feathered theropods, like Ornithomimus, Compsognathus, Velociraptor, and Archaeopteryx as well as modern birds.Within Coelurosauria, T. rex was part of the family Tyrannosauridae, which were the top predators of North America and Asia during the Late Cretaceous after the true carnosaurs went extinct earlier in the Cretaceous. The tyrannosaurid family was divided into two subfamilies: One was the (usually) larger tyrannosaurines, which included Tyrannosaurus, Tarbosaurus (sometimes considered an Asian Tyrannosaurus species, T. bataar), Daspletosaurus, Nanuqsaurus, Teratophoneus, and Alioramus (although the latter may represent a third branch). The other was the smaller and lither albertosaurines, which included Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus. From the 1980s until the 2000s, some paleontologists suggested the existence of a small, primitive group called the aublysodontines, but these are now thought to simply be juveniles.
Tyrannosauridae was in turn part of the superfamily Tyrannosauroidea, whose notable members include Alectrosaurus, Bistahieversor (both sometimes considered true tyrannosaurids), Dryptosaurus, Nanotyrannus, Moros, Eotyrannus, Dilong, Stokesosaurus, Yutyrannus, Guanlong, and Proceratosaurus. The earliest tyrannosauroids are known from the Middle Jurassic, nearly one-hundred million years before T. rex appeared, but for most of their history the tyrannosauroids only small to medium-sized carnivores. Interestingly, more basal tyrannosauroids are known from the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous of Europe, but they mysteriously vanished by the Late Cretaceous, and were replaced by abelisaurids (an unrelated group of large carnivorous theropods) as the dominant predators on the continent at that point. Some studies in the 1990s and 2000s suggested that tyrannosauroids were related to ornithomimids as Brown thought, but their similarities are now thought to be parallelisms and ornithomimids are placed closer to maniraptorans (the group that includes birds).
Also possibly within Tyrannosauroidea are the megaraptorans (named for their most famous member Megaraptor), a group of theropods primarily found in the Southern Hemisphere with slender skulls and massive arms ending in talon-like claws likely used in killing prey — though they may have instead been carnosaurs or a more primitive group of coelurosaurs. It would be a bit ironic if they were tyrannosaurs, as this is a group usually most famous for their massive heads and tiny arms. Similarly, the Late Jurassic North American theropod Coelurus, one of the first Mesozoic coelurosaurs discovered and the whole group's namesake, has been considered a tyrannosauroid by some, but this is even more controversial.
Time Period, Range, and Environment
T. rex lived at the very end of the Late Cretaceous period, 68-66 million years ago (a time known as the Maastrichtian stage, specifically the late Maastrichtian). As one of the very last non-bird dinosaurs, it was around to experience the infamous asteroid collision that ended the Mesozoic era. Any depiction of T. rex earlier than that is, therefore, inaccurate.T. rex was an exclusively North American species. During the Late Cretaceous, North America was divided into two smaller continents by a shallow sea named the Western Interior Seaway (although by the time T. rex was around, the seaway was receding, and no longer cut all the way through the entire landmass); T. rex lived on the western continent, dubbed Laramidia. Its fossils have been found throughout Laramidia, ranging from Alberta and Saskatchewan in the north to Texas and New Mexico in the south, possibly even as far as Sonora, Mexico. However, as described below, whether the southern fossils belong to T. rex itself or to a closely related species in the same genus is still up for debate.
However, its closest relative was the aforementioned Tarbosaurus, which lived in East Asia at the same time. It is theorized that because of how closely related it was to its Asian counterpart, T. rex's ancestors originated from Asia and crossed over the Bering Land Bridge into North America, eventually taking over most of Laramidia. Albertosaurus, which lived in Laramidia just before this, became extinct shortly after T. rex appeared, lending credence to this theory.
This, however, came into question with the discovery of T. mcraeensis, which seemed to be isolated to the Southern United States, raising the possibility that T. rex''s ancestors actually originated in North America and migrated to Asia instead. Muddying the waters further is the fact that T. mcraeensis shares a number of traits with Tarbosaurus, such as a narrow snout and more blade-shaped teeth, the latter of which may have been an adaptation to killing sauropods. The same study found that Lythronax, a smaller tyrannosaurine that lived roughly 80 mya in Utah, was the closest common ancestor of Tyrannosaurus, Zhuchengtyrannus and Tarbosaurus, indicating that a relative of Lythronax (or a species of Lythronax itself) travelled into Siberia to become the Asian tyrannosaurids (excluding Alioramus, which diverted from the tyrannosaur family much earlier), while the ancestor of Tyrannosaurus remained in Southern Laramidia. This also seems to indicate that T. mcraeensis likely competed with other tyrannosaurids like Albertosaurus. However, subsequent studies have questioned the apparent older age and supposed morphological differences of T. mcraeensis, finding it was most likely from the same time period as T. rex and within the parameters of individual variation known from the species, making it a possible synonym of T. rex. That said, this doesn't necessarily disprove the hypothesis the genus originated in North America. And even if T. mcraeensis isn't as old as originally thought, the presence of similar Tyrannosaurus fossils from Texas's Ojo Alamo and Javelina Formations that appear to be distinct from T. rex suggests that there might well have been a second Tyrannosaurus species in the southwest.
In art and fiction, T. rex is often portrayed living alongside dinosaurs it didn't coexist with in reality. The most egregious cases show it alongside Jurassic dinosaurs like Stegosaurus, but even authors who try to do their homework often slip up by showing T. rex coexisting with Late Cretaceous North American dinosaurs that lived about 5-10 million years earlier in the Campanian stage, like Parasaurolophus, Styracosaurus, Euoplocephalus, Dromaeosaurus, and Stenonychosaurus.
Dinosaurs that did live with T. rex in Maastrichtian North America 68-66 million years ago include the ceratopsians Triceratops, Torosaurus, and Leptoceratops; the ankylosaurs Ankylosaurus and Denversaurus; the ornithopods Edmontosaurus and Thescelosaurus; smaller theropods like Ornithomimus, Nanotyrannus, Acheroraptor, Anzu, Pectinodon, and Trierarchuncus; the pachycephalosaurs Pachycephalosaurus and Stygimoloch, and the sauropod Alamosaurus.
Also found in T. rex's habitat were the giant pterosaurs Quetzalcoatlus and Infernodrakon, the amphibious reptile Champsosaurus, small mammals like Didelphodon, Purgatorius, Alphadon, and Nanocuris, birds (like the eagle-sized Avisaurus and hesperornithiform Potamornis), crocodilians (despite some depictions, nothing giant like the Campanian-aged Deinosuchus but there were others like the gharial-like crocodyliform Thoracosaurus, caiman-like Brachychampsa, and alligator-sized Borealosuchus), turtles, snakes and lizards (like the Komodo dragon-like Palaeosaniwa), amphibians, and a variety of fish (including freshwater sharks and rays, gars, bowfins, sturgeons, and paddlefish). T. rex also would've coexisted with some very large mosasaurs (around the same size as it), which were present in both marine and freshwater waterways.
Aside from Nanotyrannus, no other tyrannosaurs shared T. rex's ecosystem, and (even counting Nanotyrannus) no other land predator even half its size was known to have been present in its range, making it the undisputed apex predator of its environment (for comparison, the next largest predator we know of with certainty, the giant pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus, was less than half a ton). This sort of predator hierarchy was common in any ecosystem where tyrannosaurids ruled, unlike other Mesozoic ecosystems and Cenozoic ecosystems, in which numerous predator species of different sizes, from very small to very large, are present. It has been proposed that "Nanotyrannus" filled an intermediate predatory niche between T. rex and Acheroraptor, and the same has also been proposed of an alleged bear-sized dromaeosaur dubbed "Dakotaraptor", but the latter is now generally suspected to be a fossil chimera of various theropods and turtles rather than a real animal.
The prehistoric North American range of T. rex was divided between a swampy subtropical forest to the north and arid inland plains to the south, with the nascent Rocky Mountains to the west and the receding Western Interior Seaway to the east. These environments supported different faunas. The former, known as the Lancian fauna (most famously represented by the Hell Creek Formation of Montana, Lance Formation of Wyoming, Scollard Formation of Alberta, and the Frenchman Formation of Saskatchewan), was dominated by Triceratops, Edmontosaurus, and Ankylosaurus, while the latter, the less-studied Sanjuanian fauna (known primarily from the Ojo Alamo Formation of New Mexico, North Horn Formation of Utah, and Javelina Formation of Texas), was characterized by Alamosaurus, Torosaurus, and Quetzalcoatlus (although Torosaurus is known from the northern regions too).
Most of T. rex's contemporaries mentioned above are Lancian, but many had Sanjuanian counterparts — Ojoraptorsaurus instead of Anzunote , Dineobellator instead of Acheroraptor, Glyptodontopelta instead of Denversaurus, Ojoceratops instead of Triceratopsnote , and Kritosaurus instead of Edmontosaurus. There are also some species without northern counterparts, like Alamosaurus and a currently unnamed hadrosaur similar to the Campanian-aged Corythosaurus. However, as mentioned above, it has been suggested that the Sanjuanian Tyrannosaurus fossils may not be from T. rex itself, but from a second species in the same genus, which may or may not be T. mcraeensis.
Size and Shape
T. rex was famous for being one of the largest theropods, rivalling notorious contenders Giganotosaurus and Spinosaurus in length and likely being heavier than either (although it's important to note that T. rex is known from far more complete and numerous fossils than any other contender for "largest theropod"). The "Sue" skeleton is 41–43 feet (12.3–12.8 meters) long (the inaccuracy comes from a few missing vertebrae), about 13 feet (4 meters) tall at the hip, and is estimated to weigh 9.3–15.4 tons (8.4–14 metric tons) – for comparison, that's 2–3 times the weight of an African bush elephant. It was also much bulkier in real life compared to the athletic, "musclebound" appearance that fiction and older reconstructions tend to depict it with. As a result, current estimates of its top speed generally agree on somewhere between 11–15 mph (18-24 km/h), so it wouldn't have been that fast, but given that most of its usual prey were also large and bulky, this wouldn't have been a problem.Early restorations depicted T. rex in a kangaroo-like tripod posture, dragging its long tail on the ground like Godzilla. However, thanks to more complete skeletons, now we know that it held its body horizontally, using its thickly muscled tail as a counterweight for its body and large head. In fact, T. rex had a ridiculously massive head, even in comparison to other big, predatory theropods. Its mouth was full of sharp teeth, up to 20 cm (8 inches) long, sometimes dubbed "killer bananas" because of their size and shape (the teeth of carnosaurs were much thinner by comparison). Its bite force is estimated to be about 8,000 pounds – stronger than any other known land animal – which it needed to crush the bones of the large, often armoured dinosaurs it ate. For comparison, the strongest bite force of any animal alive today belongs to the saltwater crocodile, at over 3,000 pounds, but the most powerful of all time belonged to the giant shark Otodus megalodon, which could have ranged anywhere between over 20,000 to over 40,000 pounds.
T. rex and other large theropods are traditionally rendered with their teeth exposed when their mouths are closed — a trait shared by crocodiles. However, many experts believe T. rex instead had lips over its teeth, similar to those of a Komodo dragon, i.e. a modern-day large, predatory, terrestrial reptile. This was necessary for protecting teeth from the elements and keeping them lubricated when they weren't in use (crocodiles do not have this issue, because water takes care of everything for them). Nonetheless, T. rex lost teeth quite regularly as they bit through the bones and armor of their large, powerful prey, but like crocodiles, these were quickly and easily replaced. Studies of the rim along T. rex's mouth also suggest it was very sensitive to touch, like in crocodiles. This could help a T. rex to judge how powerfully or delicately it needed to use its jaws, and maybe even communicate with others of its kind by nuzzling.
One of the most iconic and most ridiculed traits of T. rex is its tiny arms (though some theropods, like Carnotaurus, had even more disproportionately tiny arms). They were two-fingered with sharp claws on them, and the palms faced inward (rather than downward, as once thought). The reason for the arms' small size is mainly practicality; large arms would have gotten in the way of T. rex's bite, which was the dinosaur's primary killing tool. Thus, whereas other predators have clawing weapons to complement their teeth, T. rex put all its power into its jaws. But in spite of their size, the arm bones show signs of large muscle attachments (a hallmark of its coelurosaurian ancestry) and thus, they were very strong and capable of lifting up to 200 pounds (90 kilograms). Because of this, T. rex might have used them to hold onto struggling prey while it dispatched it with its jaws. In addition, they could have also been used to help lift T. rex up from a sleeping position when it was waking up, hold onto a mate while copulating, or even to pick up its offspring the same way a crocodile uses its jaws to carry its babies.
Historically, T. rex was portrayed with lizard- or crocodile-like scaly skin. But with the discovery that many dinosaurs, particularly coelurosaurs (including the tyrannosauroids Yutyrannus and Dilong), were feathered, it's been suggested that T. rex was too, basically looking like a giant toothy bird. However, fossilized skin impressions of T. rex and other tyrannosaurids show that most of its body was, indeed, scaly (or at least, extremely sparsely feathered); the only place that was potentially fully feathered was its back, similar to the mane of a lion. As T. rex was a large animal living in warm climate, it likely did not need the extra insulation from a thick coat of fluff, just as similarly-sized mammals like rhinoceroses and elephants are sparsely haired. Some still speculate that it had downy feathers as a hatchling, when it was still small enough to need insulation, and eventually lost these as it reached a certain age and size, much like a baby penguin molting away its birth feathers as it becomes an adolescent.
T. rex is typically depicted in media with a Mighty Roar; ever since Jurassic Park (1993), everyone "knows" what that roar sounded like. However, there is actually little evidence that T. rex could roar the same way a lion or a bear could, since it lacked the vocal organs that allow mammals to do so. It may have instead produced low-pitched rumbling, hissing, and bellowing, similar to crocodilians, large flightless birds (like ostriches and cassowaries), and bitterns. It still would've sounded pretty damned impressive, although it may have been bit underwhelming for those used to the movies. Basically, imagine the sound an alligator makes, then imagine if that alligator was 40 feet long and weighed over 8 tonnes. Furthermore, the vibrations produced by a communicating T. rex may have been deep and powerful enough to have been felt as they rippled through the air, possibly even creating small tremors in the earth.
T. rex had extraordinary senses of smell and hearing. Analysis of the braincase in fossilized skulls shows that it had large olfactory bulbs and a long cochlear duct capable of receiving low-frequency sounds. These traits would have been useful both for predation (tracking and listening for prey) and scavenging (finding carrion from a great distance and detecting approaching rivals). However, contrary to what Steven Spielberg and Michael Crichton would have you believe, T. rex also had excellent eyesight that would've let the creature spot objects from as far as six kilometres with thirteen times the detail as a human eye, likely having vision superior to even modern birds of prey. It had large eyes facing forward and connected to big optical lobes, as well as a relatively narrow snout, allowing for binocular vision. This is probably T. rex's most unique trait, as almost no other dinosaur had vision like this (most other large, predatory theropods have poor eyesight and relied mainly on their sense of smell). This ability supports the idea that T. rex was a hunter, as binocular vision is beneficial when ambushing and chasing prey.
A common trope in popular culture is to portray female T. rex as being larger, stronger, and deadlier than males of the species. This idea has its origins in the discovery of an unusual gap in the tail vertebrae of several large T. rex specimens that was believed to represent an egg canal, as a similar structure is known in female crocodiles. However, the alleged proof of this sexual dimorphism has been since discredited by the fact the supposed egg canal anatomy was also found to be present on male crocs, meaning it cannot be used to determine a dinosaur's sex (plus Sue, who was said to have the gap, didn't actually have it after all). But since birds of prey display this sexual dimorphism, it's still entirely possible this was the case with T. rex too. However, it's equally possible that the male was larger or both sexes were the same size. We simply don't have the evidence to prove any of these possibilities. The idea has nonetheless been kept alive by the gendered name of the famous Sue specimen, whose actual sex is unknown. So far, the only confirmed female T. rex specimen (B-Rex) has next to no differences from other specimens that can't be explained by normal variation, with the only thing confirming its sex being its DNA.
Diet and Lifestyle
Though T. rex is typically portrayed as a hunter in media, there is an infamous debate among paleontologists as to whether or not T. rex was actually a scavenger instead, popularized by paleontologist and Jurassic Park dinosaur consultant Jack Horner.While proponents of the "scavenger" theory point to T. rex's slow speed, ability to crush bone, and acute sense of smell, the overwhelming majority of experts believe T. rex was primarily a hunter, as evidenced by its potential prey also being fairly slow, its superb hearing and eyesight, its massive caloric requirements, and the existence of plant-eating dinosaur fossils with T. rex bite marks on them that show signs of healing (indicating they survived a T. rex attack). However, T. rex would have also definitely eaten any carrion it came across, and it's possible that large, adult Tyrannosaurus would regularly Kill Steal the hunts of other carnivores, including rival T. rex. Modern predators, like tigers and great white sharks, also do this, especially in old age.
That said, T. rex regularly hunted some formidable prey. The bones of animals like Triceratops and Edmontosaurus, frequently bear T. rex-inflicted injuries, and many T. rex specimens have injuries from their prey as well. T. rex most likely hunted them by ambush, using a short burst of speed to catch up to prey before using its massive body to knock the victim over and finishing them off with its powerful jaws. On the other hand, young Tyrannosaurus, with their slenderer bodies and narrower snouts, may have hunted smaller and faster prey. Bite marks on T. rex bones attributable to other T. rex also suggest it may have even been cannibalistic. There's also evidence that suggests the possibility that T. rex occasionally combed the beaches of the Western Interior Seaway for the carcasses of marine reptiles and fish that washed up.
Most early depictions of T. rex have them as solitary brutes with little in the way of brainpower or social ability. However, more recent studies have shown that T. rex had a bigger brain-to-body ratio than previously thought, being smarter than earlier species of giant theropods. Given its adaptations and how its common prey items included some heavily armored and highly social animals, it's likely T. rex would need the intelligence to be able to take down its prey with different strategies and know when to throw in the towel and eat a pre-killed carcass instead. It has even been claimed by some that T. rex was as smart as a wolf or even a baboon, although most experts think its intelligence was more comparable to a crocodile or bird of prey, both of which are still very clever animals.
Some scientists have also proposed that T. rex hunted in packs, citing evidence like a mass grave of the related Albertosaurus, and more recently the discovery of three T. rex specimens close together. However, these arguments have come under fire for a lack of academic rigour, with some arguing that the presence of these specimens was due to other factors (like the "mobbing" seen when Komodo dragons converge on a carcass). Furthermore, the idea of such coordinated behaviour in predatory dinosaurs is controversial, as the dinosaurs' closest living carnivorous relatives – alligators, crocodiles, and birds of prey – typically do not hunt socially. Note However, it is impossible to say this with certainty, because there are some records of Cuban crocodiles hunting cooperatively, while the Harris's hawk is notable among birds of prey for hunting socially. Note
Popular Culture
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T. rex's pop-culture impact is almost impossible to overstate. It pretty much was a smash hit from the moment it was scientifically described, thanks in no small part to its awesome name and the fact that it was the biggest land-based predator known to science at the time. The 1905 The New York Times hailed it as the "king of all kings in the domain of animal life." Thirteen years after its discovery, Tyrannosaurus made its first silver screen appearance in Willis O'Brien's The Ghost Of Slumber Mountain in 1918, which also featured its first noted pop-culture duel with a Triceratops, which helped cement the two species as Arch-Enemies in the popular imagination. O'Brien would later further cement T. rex's pop-culture dominance in 1933's King Kong by having the titular ape wrestle with one. Thus the Terrifying Tyrannosaur trope was born.
T. rex's rise to stardom is especially noteworthy as up until the 1910s, Allosaurus was the star theropod de jure in pop-culture. Since then, Allosaurus has mostly been used in media focusing on the Jurassic Period, or as a "poor man's substitute" for T. rex.
While some in the paleontology community have complained that T. rex is overexposed and overhyped, and its record as the biggest land-dwelling predator has been broken by the likes of Spinosaurus and Giganotosaurus, the genus/species's place in pop-culture remains unassailable.
